Washington Post’s smackdown response to homophobic parent

A PUBLISHED advice column that saw a parent ask columnist Amy Dickinson for ways to convince the parent’s gay son to be heterosexual has gone viral on social media this week.

On Tuesday the Washington Post website’s Ask Amy segment led with a question from an anonymous parent who was pressuring his or her 17-year-old recently-out gay son to become straight.

“Dear Amy: I recently discovered that my son, who is 17, is a homosexual,” the parent wrote.

“We are part of a church group and I fear that if people in that group find out they will make fun of me for having a gay child.

“He won’t listen to reason, and he will not stop being gay. I feel as if he is doing this just to get back at me for forgetting his birthday for the past three years — I have a busy work schedule.

“Please help him make the right choice in life by not being gay. He won’t listen to me, so maybe he will listen to you.”

The parent then signed off the letter as “Feeling Betrayed”.

What Ms Dickinson wrote in response was something the Star Observer is sure the parent did not expect.

“Dear Betrayed: You could teach your son an important lesson by changing your own sexuality to show him how easy it is,” she wrote.

“Try it for the next year or so: Stop being a heterosexual to demonstrate to your son that a person’s sexuality is a matter of choice — to be dictated by one’s parents, the parents’ church and social pressure.”

She went on to say that “he has a right to be accepted by his parents for being exactly who he is”, and then directed the parent to the services of PFLAG if he or she could not accept him for who he was.

To read Amy Dickinson’s response in full, click here.